The present invention relates to boxes especially stackable boxes utilized for packing and shipping certain products such as fruits, vegetables or the like.
The known box of the foregoing type used for packing fruits or vegetables includes a frame of a rectangular or square shape having walls formed of non-flowable moldable material and a base inserted into the frame and located above a lower edge thereof. The walls of the frame at their adjacent edges form outwardly extended corners. Such boxes may be used one time and disposed thereafter or may be utilized repeatedly for packing and shipping fruits, vegetables, or ' the like. Boxes which are to be used only once are usually destroyed at the point of distination.
It should be taken into consideration that the boxes should be so constructed that the costs of packaging and storing of the goods would be minimal and once used boxes should be easily destroyed without remainders; for example, burned so that they would not be detrimental for the environment.
It is also important that the boxes for packing perishable products such as fruits and vegetables must have sufficient rigidity to protect the goods to be shipped. The boxes for packing the forementioned products must be so constructed that they will not eventually be disintegrated by the influence of moisture absorbed by the material of the walls of the box, either from the products which they contain or from the environment.
Packing and shipping of certain types of fruits and vegetables require that boxes in which they are shipped be covered to protect the products to be packed. During the shipment of such perishable products, some of the products, such as grapes, may require use of an intermediate packing material which may be inserted between individual layers of the products. These products when initially packed may not be settled down so that the uppermost surface of the products may initially be located higher than the upper box edge.